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CAP CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) – Space walking astronauts ventured on Sunday to install support frames for new high-efficiency solar panels arriving at the International Space Station later this year.
NASA’s Kate Rubins and Victor Glover emerged from the orbiting lab dragging 8-foot (2.5-meter) duffel-style bags filled with hundreds of pounds of mounting brackets and struts. The equipment was so big and clunky that it had to be taken apart like a piece of furniture, just to go through the hatch.
“We know it’s super tight in there,” Mission Control said over the radio.
In this image from a NASA video, NASA astronauts Kate Rubins, top, and Victor Glover are working outside the International Space Station on Sunday, February 28, 2021. The space travel astronauts stand by ventured on Sunday to install support frames for new high-efficiency solar panels arriving at the International Space Station later this year. (NASA via AP)
The astronauts headed with their unusually large load towards the far port side of the station, being careful not to hit anything. This is where the oldest and most degraded solar wings of the station are located.
Glover quickly began assembling the spacers into a triangle shape, using a cordless electric drill, and Rubins bolted the finished part to the space station.
With more people and experiences flying on the space station, more power will be needed to make everything work, according to NASA. The six new solar panels – which will be delivered in pairs by SpaceX over the coming year – are expected to increase the station’s electrical capacity by up to 30 percent.
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Rubins and Glover had to assemble and bolt the spacers for the first two solar panels, which are scheduled to launch in June.
The eight solar panels that exist today are between 12 and 20 years old – most of them have passed their lifespan and are deteriorating. Each panel is 34 meters long by 12 meters wide. End to end including the central frame, each pair spans 73 meters, longer than the wingspan of a Boeing 777.
Boeing is supplying the new roll-up panels, about half the size of the old ones, but just as powerful thanks to the latest solar cell technology. They will be placed at an angle above the old ones, which will continue to function.
A prototype was tested at the space station in 2017.
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The views from Rubins’ new high-definition helmet camera were stunning, especially those showing the vivid blue Earth 435 kilometers below. “Pretty fantastic,” Mission Control observed.
Sunday’s spacewalk was the third for infectious disease specialist Rubins and Navy pilot Glover – both of whom could fly to the moon.
They are one of 18 astronauts newly assigned to NASA’s Artemis moon landing program. The next moonwalkers will come from this group.
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Last week, Vice President Kamala Harris appealed for congratulations to Glover, the first African-American astronaut to live full-time on the space station. NASA released the video exchange on Saturday.
“The story you make, we are so proud of you,” said Harris. Like the other premieres, Glover replied, it won’t be the last. “We want to make sure that we can keep doing new things,” he said.
Rubins will return with Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi on Friday to complete solar panel prep work and to ventilate and relocate ammonia coolant pipes.
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Glover and Noguchi were among four astronauts who arrived via SpaceX in November. Rubins was launched from Kazakhstan in October alongside two Russians. They are all due to return to Earth this spring.
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